NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. – Nazis appeared to find a friendly reception at the conservative political action conference this year.
Throughout the conference, racist extremists, some of whom had secured official CPAC badges, openly mingled with conference attendees and espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The presence of the individuals has been a persistent issue at CPAC, and in previous years, conference organizers have ejected well known nazis and white supremacists, such as Nick Fuentes.
But this year, racist conspiracy theorists didn’t meet any perceptible resistance at the conference where Donald Trump has been the keynote speaker since 2017.
At the Young Republican mixer Saturday evening a group of Nazis, who openly identified as national socialists, mingled with mainstream conservative personalities, including some from Turning Point USA, and discussed race science and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
One member of the group, Greg Conte, who attended the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, said that his group showed up to talk to the media. He said that the group was prepared to be ejected if CPAC organizers were tipped off, but that never happened.
Another, Ryan Sanchez, who was previously part of the Nazi Rise Above Movement, took photos and videos of himself at the conference with an official badge and touted associations with Fuentes.
Other attendees with Sanchez openly used the N-word.
For several years, CPAC and its supporters have attempted to temper the most extremist fringes of the conservative movement of the party and conference, and have welcomed the continued debate between Trump and more moderate conservatives.
This year, however, some attendees and former attendees have expressed frustration with the conferences more intense association with Trump and his wing of the party.
In one of the most viral moments from this year’s conference, Conservative personality Jack Posobiec called for the end of democracy and a more explicitly Christian focused government. While Posobiec later said his statements were partly satire, many CPAC attendees embraced his and others’ invocations of the Jan 6 insurrection.
CPAC organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
